No Illusions

The Voices of Russia's Future Leaders, with a New Introduction

Ellen Mickiewicz

An unprecedented and intimate window into the mindsets of future leaders of Russian government, economy, and diplomacy

Over one hundred students in Russia's three most elite universities reveal their thoughts in focus groups

Written by one of the leading and most knowledgeable scholars of Russian media, politics, and culture

New to this Edition:

Paperback features a new introduction that provides a comprehensive critique of the media weaponization theory

No Illusions

The Voices of Russia's Future Leaders, with a New Introduction

Ellen Mickiewicz

Description

Now with a new chapter on the reported US-Russia media "war"

How will the future leaders of Russia regard the world scene? How will they regard democracy, free speech, and immigration? And what sorts of tactics will they bring to international negotiating tables, where politics and economics are central? These young people have strong and surprising views about their country and its leadership, the United States, and the international arena - and they trust each other and the world only with deep reservations and, often, fear.

One concept that has come to dominate the discussion around trust and international relations with Russia is "information weaponization". The paperback edition of No Illusions: The Voices of Russia's Future Leaders features a new chapter analyzing this clamorous issue, exploring with new research this rapidly expanding source of policy making. To what extent and why is the weaponization idea so widespread and influential in NATO and many Western governments, media, and think tanks? How does it stand up to evidence? Equally important are urgent questions about the Russians who are rising in government institutions: how to understand and predict their attitudes?

No Illusions provides an engaging, intimate, and unprecedented window into the mindsets of the next generation of leaders in Russian politics, business, and economics. In this book, one hundred and eight students in Russia's three most elite universities, the training grounds for the nation's leadership, reveal their thoughts on international relations, neighboring countries, domestic and international media, democratic movements, and their government in focus groups; they speak candidly, passionately, and sometimes sardonically about the United States. As well, Ellen Mickiewicz, one of the world's foremost experts on Russian media, politics, and culture, shows how their total immersion in the world of the internet -- an immersion that sets them apart from the current generation of Russian leadership and much of the rest of the country -- frames the way that they think and affects their trust in their leaders, the media, and their colleagues. Their worldviews are complex and often contradictory, reflecting complicated personalities that are adaptable yet also subject to much internal strife and "splintering." For example, while many of them are planning to go into politics, they express ambivalence about voting; they have favorable views of democracy, but not of the American model; they are shrewd critics of government propaganda and yet have clearly absorbed residue of Cold War defensiveness.

Mickiewicz also looks at the nation's massive protests and nascent political movements to show how they came about and to consider what promise they might hold even in times of narrowing opportunities. She profiles several of Russia's up-and-coming leaders, including charismatic and controversial activist and politician Aleksei Navalny, who, even during his legal trials and house arrest, remains the face of the opposition to the Putin regime. As this book shows, the next generation of Russian leadership promises to hold a rather different worldview from that of the current one, yet it is not a worldview that readily embraces American democracy. No Illusions is a thought-provoking and often surprising glimpse into the future of Russia's foreign relations.

No Illusions

The Voices of Russia's Future Leaders, with a New Introduction

Ellen Mickiewicz

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Paperback: Weaponized Information: Illusions and DelusionsIntroductionChapter 1: America RefractedChapter 2: Russian LeadersChapter 3: Should I Take a Chance on Trust?Chapter 4: Life on the Russian InternetChapter 5: Different Faces of Demonstrations and One Experiment Carving Democracy in the InternetChapter 6: Game Changers, Reprisals and Political CompetitionChapter 7: The Future Takes ShapeNotes Index

No Illusions

The Voices of Russia's Future Leaders, with a New Introduction

Ellen Mickiewicz

Author Information

Ellen Mickiewicz is James R. Shepley Emeritus Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science at Duke University.

No Illusions

The Voices of Russia's Future Leaders, with a New Introduction

Ellen Mickiewicz

Reviews and Awards

"A uniquely valuable piece of research." --Foreign Affairs

"No Illusions is a remarkable study of the attitudes of Russian students on track to be the future political and intellectual leaders of their country. Dr. Mickiewicz's findings, based on discussions by students in focus groups and on an examination of the impact of the internet on political activity, are studded with surprises and will fascinate all who are concerned about Russia's future course. This book is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the mindset of the first Russian generation to have no memory of life under communism or of the Cold War." --Jack F. Matlock, Jr., U.S. Ambassador to the USSR, 1987-1991; author of Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union

"An extraordinary, probing and fascinating look inside the minds and attitudes of Russia's next generation of leaders. Ellen Mickiewicz draws them out on the critical issues and trends of our time, compiling a complex portrait that everyone who wants to understand Russia will find essential reading." --Judy Woodruff, Co-Anchor and Managing Editor, PBS NewsHour

"No Illusions, examines the mindset of students at elite Russian universities. In the forthcoming paperback edition, she adds substantial research on how Russia uses news as a weapon." --VOX

"No Illusions is remarkable, as much for the questions it poses as for the creative way in which it does so. Mickiewicz displays equally ambitious reach and impressive erudition; she also strikes a fine balance between data-driven analysis and thoughtful speculation. Together with the author's clear and often sparkling prose, this makes the book a true pleasure to read." --The Russian Review

"Ellen Mickiewicz's No Illusions makes an important contribution to our knowledge of contemporary Russia at a crucial moment in time... [It] provides rare insight into the formation of the worldview of Russia's elite youth before a key turning point in Russia's relations with the West." -- The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review

"Ellen Mickiewicz's No Illusions is a prescient look into the minds--and hearts--of Russia's future leaders. The chance to hear the frank voices of these Russians on the path to power cannot have come at a more critical moment for the West. The book is a gift to those who want to know what is looming in an emergent and complex Russia." --Alex S. Jones, Director of the Shorenstein Center on the Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School

"[A] detailed and complex portrait of one small but important slice of Russian society, compiled by skillfully weaving together comments to reconstruct the relatively unguarded world views of the next generation of decision makers this is a fascinating, if sobering view of the post-Putin generation of leadership." --Slavic Review

"No Illusions is a thought-provoking and often surprising glimpse into the future of Russia's foreign relations" --CritCom (A Forum for Research & Commentary on Europe)